Six Senate seats still on a knife-edge

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Family First was still being tipped to win the sixth Senate spot
in Victoria last night despite the Labor senator Jacinta Collins
being just 0.1 per cent short of the quota necessary to take the
seat.

If the socially conservative Family First Party wins it is
expected to vote with the Government - set to take at least 38
seats in the 76-member Senate - on a range of key issues, although
it says it favours Telstra remaining in majority public
ownership.

No significant change in the count in Victoria is expected
before tomorrow, and the result of other Senate seats may not be
known until next month. Six seats are still in doubt - one each in
NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and two in
Queensland, the Australian Electoral Commission said.

Five lower house seats - Wakefield, Hindmarsh and Kingston, in
South Australia, Swan in Western Australia and Bonner in Queensland
- are still listed as doubtful, and others, including Parramatta
and Richmond in NSW, are also still doubtful.

In Western Australia, Graham Edwards, the Labor MP for Cowan,
was 1080 votes ahead last night. Kim Wilkie, the Labor MP for Swan,
was 307 votes ahead of his Liberal opponent Andrew Murfin.

The Liberal MPs for Parramatta, and for the the South Australian
seats of Adelaide and Hindmarsh are all on a knife-edge.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said he expected some seats to
remain doubtful for some time.

The Labor leader, Mark Latham, said the Opposition would try to
hold the Government to account in both chambers.

"They've made a lot of unfunded promises and spending
commitments, a lot of hopes they held out to the Australian
people," he said yesterday.

"A good fighting opposition plays a role, not only in being
constructive with our own policy agenda, but holding the Government
to account."